


i was with you in the meadow

by bringyouhometoo



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-27
Updated: 2012-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-17 03:56:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bringyouhometoo/pseuds/bringyouhometoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's here to observe at a safe distance, he tells himself. Nothing more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i was with you in the meadow

**Author's Note:**

> Written back in December 2011, and probably fits somewhere post-departure-of-the-Ponds.

The children were blonde and small, completely unremarkable in thier joy, running across the playground on chubby toddlers’ legs and screaming in shared laughter. They were almost exactly the same height, though the boy had a slightly rounder face while the girl already seemed a little older, a little more poised, a little more eloquent as she gesticulated wildly, her eyes glittering, her smile wide and carefree.

Both of them were still too young to be in school, so their matching yellow polo-necks and grey shorts hinted at a private nursery, and from their heights and body-shapes he thought they looked exceptionally healthy. The boy was fast already, fast for his age – that one was going to be a runner, the clues were there in the way he carried himself and in the easy spring in his step – but it was the girl who seemed to be continually turning around and waiting for him; she ran ahead, looked behind a bush, came back to reassure her brother, became impatient again, doubled back to inspect an anthill and promptly climb on top of it… She was an adventurer, through and through.

Just like her mum.

He stopped that thought stone cold, refusing to let it take seed; he was here to observe at a safe distance, nothing more.

It was hard, impossibly hard, and the only way he could possibly hope to stop himself from running across the field to join the two children was by sinking down onto the ground and turning away, his face screwed up against the daylight and his hands scrunched up into fists he didn’t know he was forming.

“Hey, you!”

He turned around; a young boy was standing over him, his face obscured by the sun behind him but the anger un-missable.

“Yes, sorry, do I know you? How can I help?” he asked, trying for an easy smile.

“What you creeping round here, for? No one here ‘cept me and them two,” The boy spat viciously, his eyes narrowed. “You some kind of creep, that it? Mum  _said_  I could look after them, and I  _can_ ¸ and I’m telling you to sod off and stay away from my family, all right?”

“All right…” He said slowly, getting to his feet and half-raising his hands in careful surrender. “But it’s okay, I promise. Your secret’s safe with me.”

The boy looked caught. “What secret?”

“The sweets you’re hiding in your pocket,” he said smugly. “I suppose you weren’t supposed to leave your brother and sister alone, is that it? And now you’re worried that I know that you sneaked off and –“

“I was only gone for  _two minutes_  to get something to eat from my room!” The boy cried indignantly. “It’s not like they could get very far in  _two minutes_! And anyway, look, they’re fine! And they’re not my brother and sister; they’re my sister’s kids.”

“Oh, really?” He replied with a faked casual innocence, as if this was a possibility that had not occurred to him minutes ago. “Bit of an age gap?”

“I guess,” The boy shrugged. “Well, yeah, I’m twelve and she’s twenty-eight, I guess that’s – sixteen years, yeah? Well, yeah. That’s quite a lot, s’pose.”

“Well, you make a very mature uncle,” he smiled reassuringly. “And your secret’s safe with me.”

“Cheers,” The boy grinned, then held out his bag of precious sweets. “Want a jelly snake?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he grinned. “Thank you very much…?”

“Tony.”

“Thank you very much indeed, Tony.”

The boy grinned, and he grinned back, and together they sat there in the open field under an open sky and shared the snakes.

_~_

The sun was setting by the time Tony remembered to check his phone for the time; it was almost half an hour before he’d promised to have the twins inside, he explained in a rush, quickly pulling a jumper on James and making sure Lily’s socks were pulled up. Their nan and granddad – “My mum and dad, yeah?” – were having a whole bunch of work people over for dinner, and they’d all have arrived by now, so if he didn’t want to get in  _even more trouble than he was already in_ , Tony had better make sure the kids looked neat and tidy when they traipsed in through the atrium with everyone staring.

“But thank you so much for staying and stuff, Doctor, it was cool to meet you and thank you for the stories – and the sweets,” Tony said eventually, standing there with a child’s hand in each of his and looking up at the Doctor with a slightly wistful expression on his face. “Jamie, Lily, say thanks too.”

“Thank you for the stories and the piggy-backs,” James said dutifully, and Lily piped up too.

“Thank you, Doctor! Please can you come inside and say hello to Mummy and show her how the daisy chains work?”

“Yes, please!” James nodded enthusiastically. The Doctor chuckled drily, shaking his head ruefully already, but even Tony was looking a little tempted.

“If you came inside, maybe mum, wouldn’t be so cross about us being out late…”

“Believe me, Tony,” The Doctor laughed humourlessly. “Me being around would not make your mum’s temper  _any_ better at all. Seriously.”

“Oh, I guess you… Wait,” Tony said slowly. “You know their mum?”

“In a…”  _Oh, jesus._  “In a way, I suppose. Knew her, once upon a time.”

“But then you  _have_  to come inside!” Tony beamed. “Mum and Dad won’t say no, they always let people just turn up, and if you know us – you know our mum and dad, too, yeah? – then you’re definitely invited.”

“I’m really, really, sorry, Tony, but I can’t come inside, okay? Not today.”

“Not today? Tomorrow?”

Lily and James were still looking up at him with huge pleading eyes, neither of them ready to give up their newest bestest friend yet.

“Please, Doctor?”

“I… Yeah,” he said finally, a tired smile playing around his lips. “Maybe.”

“Yay!” The twins jumped up and down, clapping their chubby little hands together, and the Doctor knew – knew without a shadow of a doubt – that no matter  _what_  he told himself, he would be back the next day, and the day after that, and after that… Unable to stay away, now that he’d given in this far.

“Tone…?”

_Oh, god. Oh no. Please. No_.

A young woman was picking her way down the pebbly path, her blonde hair whipping across her face in the wind. She was wearing a sensible white dress and an elegant yellow cardigan to match, and her figure was maybe a little rounder, her make-up a little subtler, her expression a little more careful – but it was her.  

Sinking down on to his knees as quickly as was possible, and managing to pretend that it was at least partially out of caution and not just physical weakness, the Doctor pulled on Tony and the twins’  arms until they were all four of them sitting in the grass.

“Doctor, what-“ Tony started, but the Doctor laid a warning finger to his mouth.

“Listen,” he said quickly. “Remember what I said about secret special spy names?”

The three kids nodded, deadly serious.

“Well, mine’s “Doctor,” and we can’t let Mum know about it, okay?”

“Okay…” Tony said slowly. “So what is your name then?”

“I –You can call me –“ the Doctor thought wildly. “Rory.”

“Kay…” Tony looked at James and Lily. “You got that, you two? Call him Rory. Go on, do it now, so you know what to do.”

“Um…” Lily screwed her brow in concentration. “Hello… Rory?”

“That’s it,” the Doctor smiled. “See? Easy-peasy.”

“Okay, Rory!” James crowed, eager to join in this new fun secret.

The Doctor was still laughing when Rose reached the field, and that was how she first saw him; kneeling in the long grass with her brother and children, his eyes crinkling against the setting sun, a tweed jacket slung carelessly over bony shoulders and a bow tie sitting strangely incongruously beneath his childishly laughing face.

“Tony?” she called out again, stopping a few feet away and folding her arms.

Tony wheeled around, guilty. “Hey!” he tried to smile casually. “We were just on our way in, actually.”

“Nice try,” she nodded, raising her eyebrows impatiently. “Don’t worry, it’s not me, it’s mum you’ve got to watch out for, she is  _livid_ ¸ she wanted Jamie and Lily bathed and tucked up before anyone arrived, and you were supposed to put on something decent….”

“Sorry,” Tony mumbled, red-faced. “I’ll tell mum it was my fault, sorry if she was shouting at you and stuff.”

“Yeah, yeah, never mind,” Rose grinned slightly. “Who’s this, then?”

She looked expectantly past Tony at the twins and the Doctor, her eyes brisk and unemotional.

“Hi,” The Doctor said quickly, getting to his feet and extending a hand. “Rory – Rory Williams, just moved into the neighbourhood and was out for a walk when me and Tony got talking… It’s a real pleasure to meet you, Miss Tyler.”

“It’s Mrs, actually,” Rose laughed, shaking his hand a little bemusedly. “Mrs Smith.”

“Oh, of course, I – forgive me.”

“It’s okay,” she smiled. “You weren’t to know, and anyway you can call me Rose. Welcome to the neighbourhood! Glad to see Tony’s keeping up his habit of picking up stray adults and making pets of them.”

“Oy!” Tony scowled, but Rose just ruffled his hair and smirked., then turned to Lily and James. “Come on, you two as well, home. Nana’s waiting for you.”

“Oh…”

“Oh…”

“No arguments,” Rose said firmly. “Come on – up you get.”

She let James climb up on her back with a well-practised sigh, then picked up Lily in her arms in one smooth motion, made smooth by familiarity – and if there ever was a moment when the Doctor thought life in the slow lane looked  perfect, it was in the image the three of them created. A family, there before his eyes. He smiled inwardly, trying to keep his eyes trained firmly on Rose’s face but failing miserably. It was hard, looking at her directly; he felt almost blinded.

“Listen, um, Rory-“ she was half-laughing, almost stumbling under the weight of her giggling, squirming children. “I better get these two – and you, Tony, don’t think you’re sneaking off – inside. Will we be seeing you around? There’s that brunch the Masons are giving next Wednesday if you’d like to come and meet some more of your new neighbours?”

“Yes, that sounds – thanks, Rose, that – that’d be great,” he babbled, then quickly turned to grin at Tony. “See ya, then, Tony – Jamie – bye, Lily!”

Waving once more for emphasis, the Doctor turned on his heels and forced himself to take one step at a time until he was sure that Rose and the kids had turned and headed up the hill.

Lily’s voice floated down, though. “Mummy?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Is Daddy going to be at the supper?”

The Doctor paused, hating himself for it but needing to hear Rose’s answer. “Not – not tonight,” she said eventually, and there was a tightness to her voice that made the Doctor’s stomach flip painfully. “Daddy’s – on a trip, you know that.”

“Yeah, on a  _trip_   to-“

“Tony! Shut it!”

The thoughts became a blur in the Doctor’s head, a roaring of pain and  _no, no, no._ _Please. No. Not this. She doesn’t deserve this._ _Please, no, no no no no._

Still. He was still trying to walk away, because there was nothing else he could do; what he didn’t count on was what Jamie said next.

“I don’t like Daddy no more, Mum.”

“Don’t be silly, love, Daddy loves you lots and you love him lots, too, yeah?”

“He’s not funny. And you’re not funny no more,” Jamie mumbled, his head – by the sound of it – pressed up against Rose’s back.”The Doctor’s funny. Today was funny.”

The Doctor heard the mingled yelps and cries as two three-year olds were dumped unceremoniously on the floor; heard the shouts of “Mummy!” and “Rose...?!” And the answered, half-strangled reply.

“Go – just – Tony, can you take the kids and – just – I’ve got to-“

The Doctor couldn’t help it then; he turned around. She was still running like she always ran, arms waving wildly at her side, eyes wide open and full of life, almost tripping over her own feet in her hurry to reach the bottom of the hill. 


End file.
